


Identity Questions

by KadeAK (zacixn)



Series: The Inner Workings of the Late Subcon Prince [3]
Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Discovery, Gen, Nonbinary Character, Questions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:28:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23428483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zacixn/pseuds/KadeAK
Summary: Hat Kid is curious about Snatcher's pronouns. Being an alien to Earth culture, she decides to ask them about it.[Despite being in a series, this story is stand-alone, and does not require you to read the first part to understand what's going on here.]
Relationships: Hat Kid & Snatcher (A Hat in Time)
Series: The Inner Workings of the Late Subcon Prince [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1661152
Comments: 5
Kudos: 120





	Identity Questions

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, this mostly serves as a brief explanation for my own headcanons. This fic isn't very deep, I just felt inspired to get it finished, even if I missed TDOV by a whole day.
> 
> I am still working on Inside the Dreams of a Ghost. Chapter 4 of that is almost half-finished.

Of all the weird and wonderful things that happened on this planet named Earth, Hat Kid found herself most confused by the language and its subtleties. It was so complex, far more grammar based than the galactic tongues she’d mastered on her home planet. The tenses, word types, and word variations had been so difficult to get a grasp of that she’d had to spend a whole four days in Mafia Town learning from osmosis before she could even speak properly.

Despite all of the difficulties, though, Hat Kid had been fairly certain for the first leg of her journey that she very much understood the majority of Earth’s language and intricacies. From prepositions to pronouns, she could pretty much understand and communicate with everyone to a reasonable degree.

Then she met the Snatcher, who blew a decent amount of that understanding right out of the water.

For the first time in over two weeks, Hat Kid found herself stumbling with English again. She didn’t want to be rude, especially to a big noodle ghost who could very easily eat her soul and kill her on the spot, but at the same time, the concept of a brand new set of pronouns and pronoun rules to get used to was a tall task for a little alien child. If it hadn’t been for the help of the Subconites, Hat Kid would have needed an extra four days to feel brave enough to even refer to them in conversation.

She eventually forgot about it, though, when the stakes began to rise in her assigned contracts, and she found herself going up against murder bosses instead of just cleaning wells. By the time she was fighting the Snatcher themself for her life, she’d all but forgotten about her initial confusion with their identity, and was instead just overjoyed to have a brand new contractually obliged best friend forever.

-

A lot of time passed before the question even crossed Hat Kid’s mind again. Perhaps it resurfaced because she was spending more time with the spectre – that was entirely possible. After all, it was quite difficult not to wonder about the nature of your weird dead father figure while they were giving you crazy difficult Death Wishes. Hat Kid understood the means of the Snatcher’s creation, yes, but after a deep-dive into Queen Vanessa’s old creepy diaries, the creep had always referred to the Snatcher’s living form with decidedly masculine pronouns. So… what was the deal with the shift? There had to be a reason, right?

Unfortunately for Hat Kid, no matter how far she searched inside the Manor, or how many of the Snatcher’s minions she questioned, she found no information on the identity or the cause of their shift in identity. As much as the alien wanted to leave things be, she wasn’t exactly the type who liked not knowing everything about her best friends. So, she only had one choice – to ask them directly.

As expected, Snatcher was still in Hat Kid’s spaceship. She’d just beaten a Death Wish – one of the speedrun ones – which meant that the ghost would probably be hanging around for the rest of the Earth day. Hat Kid skipped into her room with her usual cheer, waving at the spirit when they looked up from what looked like a very old, very long, and very boring book.  
“Hey, BFF!” she beamed, voice light despite the question weighing on her mind. The spectre made an irritated grumble, but their smile didn’t fade – they couldn’t hide that they’d grown fond of the kid, really.

“What do you want, kid?” they replied, turning a page. “I’m rereading my favourite part of this book.”

Hat Kid paid no mind to their mutters, moving in to float in the pillow mountain next to them.  
“I had a question for you, that’s all,” she pouted, sticking her tongue out. “It’s nothing biiig, but you’re the only one who can answer it. Whaddya say, Snatch?”

This time, the ghost looked visibly irritated by the nickname, but they said nothing about it, lowering their book reluctantly.

“Alright, shoot. But if it’s anything STUPID, I’m stealing your soul again, and you’re NOT getting it back.”  
That was as good a go-ahead as Hat Kid was going to get, so she set to work phrasing her question in a way that wouldn’t seem rude.

“I was curious, ‘cause you used to use a guy's pronouns when you were alive, right? But now you’re noodly, you don’t.” She tilted her head to punctuate her question. “So, I was wondering how exactly the whole gender identity deal on Earth works.”

There was a couple of moments of silence as the question sank in, and Hat Kid wondered briefly if she'd been too blunt with her wording before Snatcher sighed, put something in their book, and put it to the side gently.

“You know, I keep forgetting you’re an alien, kid.” they spoke, turning fully to face her. “That’s a loaded question, you realise that, right?” Hat Kid shook her head innocently in response, drawing another, longer sigh from the spirit.

“I’m sorry if it’s insensitive,” the child mumbled. “I just wanted to know more about you and all.”

Snatcher was quiet a moment longer, before making a defeated noise. “Alright, fine, I’ll do my best to explain – but it’s ONLY because you asked so politely, otherwise I’d have ENDED you by now.” That perked Hat Kid right back up, and she settled into a proper listening position, smile back on her face. It always thrilled her to learn more about her friends, after all!

“Listen, kiddo. Back in my day, it wasn’t considered ‘right’ to be what I am now,” Snatcher began to explain, taking on an informative tone as they spoke. “Old people can be a MAJOR pain in the ass, and it wasn’t different back then either.” 

Hat Kid tilted her head in thought. “So, how’d you realise you weren’t a guy?”

“DYSPHORIA, kid. Self-hatred!” the Snatcher snapped, irritation blossoming towards the events in question. “Consider yourself lucky you’ll probably never have it! Because it SUCKS.” The spectre took a deep and unnecessary breath, placing a clawed hand on their forehead. “And Vanessa never helped it, either. Did you know I used to have LONG hair? It was excellent! And then SHE cut it! Against my will! Can you imagine that, kiddo?!” 

Hat Kid had never heard of this ‘dysphoria’ thing, but from the ghost’s description, it sounded positively awful. She reached out to put a hand on Snatcher’s arm, as a way of showing her support for their struggle.  
They recoiled as soon as she made contact, though, looking down on her with large, confused eyes.

“What are you doing, kid?” they said, snapping themself out of their explanation. As good as the spirit was with hiding their emotions, Hat Kid knew by now how much recalling the bad stuff hurt them, and really she felt bad for putting them through it for her curiosity.

She looked up at him with large, supportive eyes. “I’m sorry,” was all she said, and for a moment it looked like she was about to cry for Snatcher. The ghost fell briefly silent at the sight of it.

“You don’t need to be sorry for me, kid!” they declared. “It was nothing I couldn’t handle. BESIDES, it’s not like it’s an issue any more. Vanessa can’t touch me!” They paused again, eyeing Hat Kid, who still looked like she was on the verge of tears. “Good GOD, please don’t cry for me, kid. I’m fine! I figured it out! I don’t even have hair anymore!”  
At that, the child sniffled a bit, then cracked a smile. “Okay,” she beamed, wiping one of her eyes with a loose hand. “Baldy.” 

“Wh- I-“ Snatcher spluttered in surprise at the total mood swing, before Hat Kid pounced on the ghost in a bear hug. Deciding that an overly affectionate kid was way better than one that was about to start crying, they resigned themselves to the affection, wrapping one of their arms around her little body and letting her nuzzle into their ghost fur. “You’re lucky I like you a bit, kid, or I wouldn’t be letting this happen,” they grumbled, affection slipping into their tone.

Hat Kid laughed, ignoring the false threat entirely. “You’re gonna have to give me a gender neutral term for dad, y’know,” she said, words slightly muffled by the hug.  
“I am NOT your parent.”  
“Parent it is, then!”

The resulting burst of indignant anger was worth seeing Snatcher back to normal, Hat Kid thought, even as Snatcher threw her off into her pile of pillows.

**Author's Note:**

> Hat Kid said bald parent Snatcher rights.


End file.
